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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Surface Tension and Humor

Last night, as I was doing a sink full of dishes by hand (yes,
manually in this digital age - somehow, I like it - most of the time) and
scrubbing a kitty food plate I was remembering how my most recent ex -
boyfriend told me the reason dish soap works for cleaning dishes, etc.
is because it breaks the surface tension of the dirt. Once broken, it
can be removed easily. Actually, I still don't get the chemistry aspect
of why dish soap breaks the surface tension of dried-up food on a plate and not the plate too? But, hey! I missed out on high school, and
didn't get to chemistry on the way to acquiring a GED. I get that it
works because I've seen it in action...a lot. Back to last night, and my
dishwashing musings...it occurred to me that surface tension is what
holds this world together. That thought lead to another thought. When my
siblings and I were little kids we fought like many kids do. If it got
out of hand, in my experience, I would find my dad and report to him
that my brother was fighting me. What I wanted was for him to make my
brother stop fighting. His answer though invaluable always angered me
then. He would invariably say to me, "It takes two to fight, but only
one to stop fighting. You can stop the fighting any time you want to.
Just walk away."

~~~

Walk away, and it's over. Break the surface tension.

~~~

Sometimes
people complain that "Peace is boring. Who wants it?" Well, that's just
it. Who does want it? Certainly not the highly individualized sense of
self - for it needs tension for its very existence. Push/pull.

~~~

Humor goes a very, very long way in breaking surface tension. It can...when we choose to laugh instead of taking everything so effin' seriously.